I’ve planted dill seeds in a raised bed once and I haven’t had to plant them since. That’s because I let dill flowers go to seed. As those seeds start to dry, it’s inevitable that some will escape into the garden before I have a chance to harvest them. I don’t mind because I love dill and dill seedlings appear in all my raised beds at some point throughout the growing season. That means I always have fresh dill to harvest.

If I time it right and collect my dill seeds before they drop, I don’t get as much of a dense thicket of seedlings that requires thinning. Believe me when I say: if you don’t snip off those dried umbels, you will be doing a LOT of thinning! In this article, I’m going to share some tips on saving your dill seeds for future planting and how you can also add them to your spice rack for cooking.

Delaying dill seeds from forming

Pruning dill consistently throughout the growing season can help to delay flowering. Rather than allowing the pruned herb sprigs to go to waste, I’ll think of dishes I can add them to, like potato salad, fish, quinoa salad, pickles, and salad dressings.

Sometimes my plants are naturally pruned by the swallowtail caterpillars that appear in the garden. When I have lots of dill growing in different parts of my raised beds, I don’t mind sharing it with hungry caterpillars.

Waiting for dill flowers to produce seeds

Once your dill plants start to flower, they will attract a TON of beneficial insects to the garden. My plants are always abuzz with bees and other beneficial insects. Ladybugs, tachinid flies, green lacewings, and hoverflies, which help to control aphid populations, all love dill flowers.

Once the flowers appear, they tend to stick around for a while and take some time to mature, so you need to be patient while the seeds form. I like to include dill flowers in cut flower arrangements. They provide a delicate spray of “fireworks” among other summer blooms, like zinnias and cosmos.

You must leave the flowers in the garden in order for the seeds to develop. Wait until the seeds turn from green to brown in color. The umbels will start to turn inwards towards each other, so that the seeds are in little clumps. At this point, they’re still fairly stuck and won’t scatter in the garden. This is a good time for harvesting

How to harvest dill seeds

To harvest dill seeds, wait until the seeds are dried and brown. Use herb scissors to snip the flower stalk a few inches from the base of the flower. Place the dried flowers upside down in a paper bag. Store the bag in a dry area for a week or two. Once the seeds have fallen into the bag (you may need to give the stalks a little shake for encouragement), pour them onto a tray. Remove any bits of stem.

Use a funnel to pour the tray’s contents into a jar without spilling any. To avoid moisture, store seeds in an airtight container for long-term storage. I store mine in a short mason jar. They are kept in a dark cupboard, away from sunlight, with other spices. Later on you can decide if you’re going to cook with them or if you’re going to save some for next year’s garden (or both!).

Reasons your dill plant may not produce seed

There are a few reasons why you may not see seed heads on your herb plant at the end of the growing season. The first possibility is if black swallowtail caterpillars consume all those tiny yellow flowers that grow at the end of the umbels produced by a flowering dill plant—or if the caterpillars eat the plants down completely!

Aphids can also wreak havoc. If you spot them, a quick spray from the garden hose each day can minimize the damage.

Of course if you snip all those lovely dill flowers for bouquets, you won’t be seeing any seeds develop later in the season.

Planting harvested dill seeds

Dill (Anethum graveolens) is one of those plants that prefers to be direct-sown. Seedlings get a little fussy when they’re transferred from a pot. I find the dill that comes up from dropped seed in my garden to be very hardy. It’s already adapted to its growing conditions.

Sow dill seeds in well-draining soil in an area that gets full sun. The seeds left in my raised bed over the winter germinate in early spring, depending on the winter. I’ll head out regularly to check for that telltale feathery foliage. If you’re waiting to direct-sow seeds, wait until the soil temperatures have warmed up and all threat of frost has passed.

Stagger your seed sowing so that you have a continuous harvest. Then it doesn’t matter if some plants go to seed sooner than others. You can also look for slower-to-bolt or “late flowering” varieties, like ‘Elephant’, ‘Tetra’, and ‘Ceres’.

Watch a video for tips on saving dill seeds.

Using your dill seeds for cooking

Like coriander and fennel, dill seeds are generally sold whole and in jars at the grocery store. But like basil and parsley, the leaves are also ground up and sold as a whole different spice. The dried leaves are usually labeled as dill weed. Dill seeds look a little bit like caraway seeds (both are members of the Apiaceae family), but dill are more petal shaped than the curved arc of a caraway seed.

The seeds can be used for flavoring a variety of dishes, like borscht and other soups, various vegetable dishes, like cabbage, as well as pickles, brines, salad dressings, and other condiments.

Some cooks will use a mortar and pestle to grind the seeds up, but often a recipe will call for them to be thrown in as is. They can also be toasted to enhance their flavor.

More seed-saving tips

• Coriander
• Milkweed pods
• Beans
• Calendula
• Zinnias
• Marigolds